If Gr. γύψος ‘chalk’ came from earlier *gupʰtʰios it’d be a perfect phonological match for Eg. kꜣ-f-tj-w ‘Crete’, showing the same γυ : kꜣ correspondence as Αἴγυπτος : ḥw.t-kꜣ-ptḥ. Crete of course being where the Mycenaeans got their gypsum (cf. Latin crēta ‘chalk’).

One of the frustrating things about Afro-Asiatic is that, despite all the great morpheme comparisons, it is really hard to reconstruct vocabulary, at all. I keep a list of cognates that I myself find compelling, between the two families I know best, Berber & Semitic. Here it is:

Maestro OCIANA, Syriac and Jewish sources talk about vulture worship of the Arabs, but from what I have seen, there is no evidence for this in available inscriptions.. What do you think is going on here?

Re attarissiya: forgot to add that Attar here would imply a Western Semitic reflex of *ʕaṯtar via Middle Assyrian (via Greek?) with (a) assimilation (b) loss of 3ayin So either Ahhiyawa was a cultural melting pot or my speculation is simply BS

KA-RA-TI for Crete? I am disappointed.

youtu.be/seqKjOIGMCg?si…

New paper out, in “Assyria and the West”! In it, I argue that the Hartapu inscription from Türkmen-Karahöyük is most likely of 12th century BC date, and refers to migrating Phrygian tribes that were entering Anatolia at that time. academia.edu/58416725/Datin…

The Epstein case reminds me a little bit of the Dutroux one (except that the key person here is still alive and other witnesses instead...passed away)

What is "two" elsewhere in AA (Egyptian resembles Berber a bit more but uses dual suffix like Semitic)

pharoah one of the most common typos

Exciting news —out in the forthcoming issue of JEOL: Mysterious pre-Islamic script from Oman finally deciphered science.org/content/articl…

-is Omotic an AA dialect at all -is Omotic a real entity in the first place

NB: Phrygia, also mentioned in the Bible, alongside Tabal, as territories of the Gog entity, probably representing Gyges and his dynasty ruling over various parts of Anatolia.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb It's a distraction, false hope, and covert feudalism for the elite. 85% is owned by few whales. Those who think an anon central bank is better than your local banker you can visit and discuss a project with are in a serious delusional state. Plus, limited supply means nothing.

phoenixblog.typepad.com/blog/2014/12/c…

youtube.com/watch?v=HbUiUU…

The algorithm recommended me this Algerian song. Kabyle? youtu.be/Z3SImqHN06E?si…

Hmm